Terrified commuters were evacuated from a tube train yesterday after a door malfunction caused it to leave the station with its doors wide open.

Passengers on the Victoria line train pulled the emergency handles as the northbound train left Warren Street around 5.30pm yesterday with the doors of a middle carriage still open.

Andrew Webb, 36, a picture editor from Highbury, told The Evening Standard: “It was terrifying. The train started, I looked around and the doors were still open, so I said to this guy next to me to pull the lever. He was nearest the door but just standing there watching the platform whizz past.

“It was one of those new Victoria line trains that are supposedly super-duper. You would have thought a design feature would stop the trains moving if the doors were open.”

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Eyewitnesses told The Evening Standard that the train travelled about a carriage-length before the driver stopped the train, reset the train’s computer system and shut the doors.

A spokeswoman for TFL told the paper: “No one was hurt. London Underground is immediately investigating why this may have occurred and the train has been taken out of service. We apologise to any passengers who were concerned by the incident.”

Over 650,000 people use the Victoria line every day and the incident caused major delays on the Victoria line yesterday evening, with trains stranded for over half an hour.